since im nearby, you should probably let me have the old TII motor out of the car But seriously, if you are interested in selling it cheap, let me know. L.STAHLMAN@COMCAST.NET

 

I noticed that in my area you can buy any # of 2nd gens w/ bad motors for a bag of dirt. Too costly to rebuild? My $200 '87 recieved a junkyard LT-1 350 and 4L60E combo. Tons of room, great handling (51/49 w/bias), 20+ mpg and ship loads of torque! Now I have a nice 2 seat sports car that really rocks. Oh, yeah; no hood mods so it looks stock.

 

Now, dool, how much did the whole project cost you? FC/lt-1 seems like a nice college alternative to the fd/ls-1 beast I want to build eventually. Hell, I may even go FI with the lt-1 eventually.

 

Just to chime in here, I did the LT1/700r4 swap into a 1990 gtu and kept all acc's including the power steering, custom hood, exhuast, TII diff and half shafts, 4 piston brakes and more. Spent less than 6 grand inlcuding the price of the car. Ran a best of 12.8 in the 1/4 and also get 20+ mpg. All it takes is time and a few brain cells.

Later

 

If you have the cash to buy a T2, trash it, buy a crate engine, buy 2 turbos, fabricate everything nescissary, and want it to be reliable, you are going to spend serious money. Why don't you just get a 2000+ Corvette? They would cost about the same in the long run, except you get a chassis and engine that were meant to be together.


By the way, do the valve covers on that V8 say Mazda? That's awesome!!

 

VERY few of the folks who have done the V8 swaps have bought crate motors. Used motors are most common, a lot of times with a fresh rebuild. My particular engine is 34 years old, and this is the 4th car it's been in since I've owned it - I bought it used. I have just about $7k in my car and it's about 5-6 seconds faster than it ever would have been as an N/A rotary. I even spent more than most because I bought all NEW 4 piston brakes, wheels, seats, and electronics. My FD with an LS1 will cost right around $16k when all is said an done, including fresh paint, wheels, the car itself and a more powerful and reliable motor than it used to have. Most bone stock FD's are going for that much or more.

Corvette's don't come with turbos, so you'd need to fabricate everything there as well. So it would be more expensive because you'd have to pay (a lot) more for the car first.

Most of us also decided to use piston engines after one or more rotaries didn't make it. I'd say only roughly 10% bought the car with the intention of performing the swap. I know I didn't plan on it - I bought the car before I had any idea it could be done.

Probably the most fun of doing a swap like this is getting rotary fanatics riled up. It never fails to amaze me how worked up people get and the **** that people say about 'how lazy we are to not learn to work on the rotary.' If it was that great of an engine we wouldn't HAVE to learn - and seasoned rotary mechanics get their experience by how frequently they need work.

 

i love how the flamers get told off. it's great.

i admit i used to be a piston vs. rotary doof, but that was before i owned one. now even the slightest smoke coming from my exhaust scares me. i personally dislike chevy, but the LS1 is a nice motor, specifically for our cars. if i get a job that pays better than dick/hour i'll be saving up for it.

if my wallets were huge, i'd get an AJ V8 from ford though. something about 32 valve and throttle bodies just tickles me.

 

^lmao...

Alright...lol I have a 87 GXL with a blown engine...
I want to put an LT1 in my FC. Maybe find a wrecked 95 camaro or something, and rebuild the engine. I want to do the whole project and have it under $3k. I can get a 302 really cheap, and my buddy has a shop that he says "for 1k i'll build that engine to 450hp" but... I just want to throw a pretty much stock lt1 in the car.
Would the 94-97 Camaro Z28 engine and tranny be a good fit? I know that some of them come with a 6spd(or do all of them?) and I would probably prefer 6 to 5.

Is it possible to do the conversion under 3k?
with buying the kit from www.engineswaps.com and doing it myself? I'm sure I can pick a motor and tranny up for under 1k, and the kit costs like $1500 for everything.

So many questions...

 

im putting a 383 v8 in my car. why? because its MY car and I can. if you dot like it then too bad.